A team formed halfway through the season has taken the title by just three points, and it’s hoping to inspire more women to try racing against the clock. St Neots Cycling Club’s new women’s time trial team, SNCC Femmes, has won the N&DCA Women’s Team Championship at its first attempt. The team beat Rockingham by 878 points to 875 after a season-long battle at the top of the table.

The team is Nicky Charlton, Nikky Vaas, Ebony Cousins, Cat Kilvert and Tina Dankwart, who came up with the idea.

Tina’s own time trialling began two years ago, when a clubmate, Justin, suggested she try the club’s “Abbo” time trial. She admits it was intimidating at first.

“You may laugh, but the idea of someone holding me up at the start was a worry,” she said. “What if I didn’t go on time, they let go and I fell flat on my face? Or I got lost on the course? If you know me, you’ll know that’s definitely possible.”

She did it anyway, and it didn’t take long for the sport to win her over. “For about 30 seconds after crossing the finish line I was thinking, why would anyone want to do that regularly? Then the pain stopped, I got my breath back and thought: I want to do that again.”

More Abbos followed, then interclub events, then open time trials. Along the way she noticed how few women were competing.

Encouraged by experienced club members, Tina decided earlier this year to help other riders, especially women, give time trialling a go. SNCC Femmes was the result, and the club plans to add an open team next season.

The team started mid-season with an ECCA 10-mile event near Ely. Tina asked the organisers whether team results could be split by gender, as the women would have little chance against men’s teams on TT bikes. It was too late to change the rules, but the organisers gave the team a shout-out in their race report instead.

That report said 22% of the starters that day were women, which is unusual in a sport the organisers joked is mostly male veterans. They gave particular credit to Tina for assembling the team and promoting time trialling to women, and they hoped the St Neots riders would come back.

The team then entered the N&DCA Series. With half the season gone, they didn’t expect to challenge for the trophy. They saw it as good experience, in keeping with their motto of “getting better than we were yesterday”.

After a few rounds, though, SNCC Femmes were level at the top with Rockingham. They held on to take the title by just three points.

Want to join? It’s not too late to get involved with either the women’s team or next season’s open team. Anyone interested in trying time trialling, whatever their experience, can message the team through the club.